Improvement in toexprotectors f for boots and shoes



R. &-1. EVITT.

Toe-Protector for Boots and Shoes.

Patentedjune.29,1875.

THE GRAPHIC C0.PHOT0-LITH.39&4'I PARK PLACLNAC UNITED STATES:

PATENT Curran.

ROBERT, EVITTAND JOHN EVITT, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN TOE-PROTECTORS FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 165,055, dated J une 29, 1875 application filed June 5, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ROBERT EVITT and JOHN EVITT, of Baltimore and State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Toe-Protector for Boots and Shoes, and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form, a part of this specification.

Toe-protectors for boots and shoes of metal, hard rubber, and leather have been used.

Metal toe-guards have been used chiefly for coarse work, and when sewed in place they cut the threads, and are otherwise objectionable. They have been stamped into the required form by suitable dies, but, being inflexible, require many different sizes to meet the wants of the trade for different-sized shoes, while the hard-rubber tip, from various causes, is not desirable.

We know that skived Welts have been formed into toe-guards, with niches variously formed in the inner edge to allow it to be formed into shape by hand, and to adapt it to be adjusted to fit difi'erent-sized shoes.

In our large experience, however, as boot and shoe manufacturers, we have been unable to find in the places where such things are kept for sale any such article as struck-upleather toe-protectors. Such an article would be more extensively used by shoe-manufacturers than the metal tip, because it is better in every respect, and cheaper than the metal tip, gives better satisfaction, and turns out better work. It can be dressed to appear as a part of the upper, and is not liable to cut the uniting-threads and work out of place.

We have endeavored to supply this want to the trade and to produce as a shoe-finding a leather toe-guard molded or struck up into form ready for use. For this purpose we can use scraps of leather and shape them into crescent form, skiving the two edges on opposite sides to form a thin edge on that part which lies over the upper toe to make a neat and close fit, and to allow the welt to be shaped at its inner edge Without cutting out or nickin g the leatherfor that purpose, and subjecting the welts thus prepared, in blanks of crescent form, to a waterbath to render them perfectly soft and pliant and bring them to the proper temper, when each is placed in a die or mold of the form of the toe-tip of the shoe it is designed to fit and struck or molded into such from with the toe-guard permanently upset, so that when dried it is ready for the market, with its inner skived edge sufficiently flexible to allow it to be bent to suit any little ditterencein the width of the toe of the shoe.

In the accompanying drawings, Figurel represents the leather crescent blank from which the toe-guard is molded Fig. 2, the molded toe-guard in two positions 5 and Fig. 3 shows it as applied to a shoe.

The welt or blank to is of crescent shape, skived down on its upper side to a thin edge, b, at its inner curve 0, and skived at its outer curved edge, on its under side, for

a short distance at d, to give the strucknp guard a neat lap where it terminates with the upper, while the inner curve of the crescent being reduced to a thin body by skiving it off a greater distance than the guardedge, allows the welt to be formed into a semicircular form at this edge without crimping or overlapping, and renders it sufficiently elastic to allow the horns of the crescent to be brought a little nearer together, or to be stretched alittle farther apart, to suit the shoe in putting it on the toe.

In upsetting the tip the guard e is molded I a little concave on its inner side, and it projeets with less depth till it reaches the ends of the horns, so as to present a symmetrical appearance.

The blank is cut into form, its edges skived as stated, and kept in water long enough to give it the proper temper to be molded, and then laid over the cavity of the mold or die, and struck up by a suitable die or follower with sufficient power to form the tip. After it is dried the upset portion of the tip remains as intact as if it were cast from pulp.

The upset portion of the tip can be dressed for the market, or left plain and dressed when used. 7

We claim, as a new manufacture Aleather molded or struck-up toe-guard for we have affixed our signatures in presence boots and shoes, made from a blank of oresof two witnesses.

cent form. having its curved edges skived ROBERT EVITT. on opposite sides, and with its inner thin JOHN EVITT. curved edge intact, and molded into form, as Witnesses:

described. TH. HARRIS HODGES,

In testimony that we claim the foregoing JEROM M. WALTER. 

